Celia Lowe (PhD 1999, Yale)
Research Interests:
Anthropology of reason, biosecurity, post-colonial theory, science studies, nationalism, identity; Southeast Asia, Indonesia
Avian Influenza in Indonesia: the Anthropology of Biosecurity
The United States contributed USD 100 million to Indonesia for avian influenza initiatives between 2005-07, and has had an official "Ambassador of Bird Flu" stationed in Hong Kong. Less than 100 individuals have died of avian influenza in Indonesia, however, while--to take just one prevalent disease--tuberculosis kills one Indonesian person every four minutes. Why, in biological terms, has avian influenza become of such medical concern, and how, in cultural terms, can we interpret the anxieties bird flu raises about biosecurity? Why, in fact, is bird flu framed as an issue of post-9/11 security at all? Answers to these questions must be different in Indonesia and the United States since each have their own stakes in the concept of terror, and their own unique fears that can successfully be proliferated within their individual populations. This project problematizes avian influenza within Indonesia and the United States as a form of power exercised at the level of life, and is theorized through discussions on reason and the anthropology of biosecurity.
Flu Forum Webiste: [Click Here]
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Selected Publications:
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2010
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"Viral Clouds: Becoming H5N1 in Indonesia" Cultural Anthropology.Vol. 25(4): 625-649.
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2010
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"Preparing Indonesia: H5N1 Through the Lens of Global Health" Indonesia. 90 (October 2010).
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2007
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"Recognizing Scholarly Subjects: Collaboration, Area Studies, and the Politics of Nature,” in Knowing Southeast Asian Subjects Laurie Sears, ed.
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2006
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Wild Profusion: Biodiversity Conservation in an Indonesian Archipelago. Princton: Princeton University Press
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2004
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"Making the Monkey: The Rise, Fall, and Re-Emergence of 'M.
togeanus' in Indonesians' Conservation Biology," Cultural Anthropology 19(4):491-516.
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2004
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"The Power of People: An Interview with Chayan
Vaddhanaphuti." positions: east asia cultures critique, special
issue "Intellectuals and New Social Movements Vol II." 12(1).
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2003
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"The Magic of Place: Sama at Sea, on Land, in Sulawesi,
Indonesia" in Bijdragen tot de Taal, Land, und Volkenkunde.
159(1):109-133.
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Last Update: September 2011
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